I will never go
to the opera, but I consume movies like food so watching Milos Forman’s Amadeus (1984) is probably the closest I
will ever get to spending a night at the opera. There have been plenty of
biographies about singers and artists, but most of them are about rock
musicians who ascend to greatness before crashing and burning because of their
drug addiction. The life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart doesn’t feature
any cocaine-fuelled downfalls, but it still has plenty of drama courtesy of a
scheming competing artist straight out of a Shakespeare play.
The movie was a
massive critical hit when it was released in the 1980s and made a star out of
F. Murray Abraham as the man planning Mozart’s downfall. It also had the
unfortunate side effect of having him be pigeon holed as a villain for many
movies to come, something that was referenced in the action movie parody Last Action Hero. In that meta movie
within a movie the young protagonist tries to warn Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
action hero about Abraham’s character by telling him he killed Mozart, which
was a bit of a spoiler since I hadn’t seen Amadeus
yet and did not know about the story. I got caught up on the whole thing last
year when the director’s cut became available on Netflix, and fortunately there
is a lot more to the story than a simple murder.
The story does
open with composer Antonio Salieri (Abraham) attempting suicide in 1823 for his
guilt over the murder of Mozart. Taken to an asylum a priest (Richard Frank)
tries to offer him comfort and their conversation eventually veer into
Salieri’s confession and life story. In a way it all has to do with fame, since
the priest cannot identify any of Salieri’s music, but he has no problem with anything
made by Mozart. Yet by all accounts Salieri tried to do everything right to be
a great composer by devoting himself to God, avoiding all distractions in life,
and working hard. His work was rewarded with respect, money, and a job as the
court composer for Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones) in Vienna.
Unfortunately his
hard work becomes overshadowed by the arrival of Mozart (Tom Hulce) whom
Salieri at first admires and thinks his music is a gift from God. Upon meeting
Mozart he believes God must be toying with him since Mozart is a buffoon,
running around like a child after his gorgeous wife Constanze (Elizabeth
Berridge), and has a squeaky laugh that would make The Joker proud. Despite his
lack of good manners, decorum, and fear of God, there is no denying that Mozart
is a musical genius since he can memorize a march after hearing it only once
and is able to compose incredible operas as though they were flowing from his
fingers. Seeing an idiot be able to easily create what takes the average person
hundreds of hours to perfect is enough to shake your faith in a higher power,
which is exactly what happens to Salieri.
However Mozart
like all people is flawed. Unlike Salieri he is not good with money and
eventually finds himself in financial difficulty. His stern father (Roy
Dotrice) does not approve of his lifestyle and his death leaves Mozart emotionally
unstable. Salieri sees this as his way to destroy his rival and possibly claim
some of his compositions as his own. Through lies and manipulations he worsens
Mozart’s situation and inserts himself in his life pretending to be his friend.
This is not exactly Mark David Chapman shooting John Lennon, but in a way it is
worse since Salieri is taking months to kill his victim.
There are two
obvious great performances here. As the titular composer Hulce gets the showier
role since Mozart is always the centre of attention whenever he gets into a
room, but his performance gets more nuanced and tragic as Mozart gets obsessed
with work and falls ill. Then there is Abraham who is not just a villain, since
from the beginning we see he feels guilt over his actions. It’s hard not to
feel some sympathy for a man who was working hard for his work, but then felt
jealousy over a rival who seemed to operate on another level than most human
beings.
The gorgeous
period costumes, set pieces, and the music give the audience the impression
they are actually watching an opera, which is greatly helped by the tragic
nature of the story. At 160 minutes this makes for a long story, but even if
you hate operas you certainly won’t be bored by Forman’s film.
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